Why does Congo have so much cobalt and coltan, and are kids digging for them?

"The DRC generates 70% of worldwide cobalt output, and ASM operations generate between 15% and 20% of this total amount."

"The DRC supplies over 60% of global cobalt, and mineral exports account for more than 95% of the country's export revenues."

"In 2024, the country was estimated to account for between 67% and 76% of global cobalt production, according to figures published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the Cobalt"

"Artisanal mining is considered illegal since many sites operate outside of state regulation or formal labor laws. In the DRC miners often work on land that is owned by companies or in areas with a lack of official mining permits. This makes it hard to enforce labor protections or environmental protection policies, leading to the abuse of workers."

"Many people in the Congo depend on mining as their only form of income creating a cycle where these illegal, artisanal mines still run at the expense of these people's lives."

"People living near artisanal cobalt mining sites in Kolwezi had significantly higher levels of cobalt in their blood and urine, with children showing highly toxic exposure and evidence of DNA damage."

"The DRC produces about 63% of the world's cobalt, with about 80% from industrial copper mines, and the remaining 20% gathered by artisanal mining ."

"Not all copper deposits contain significant cobalt , but nearly all cobalt in the country is sourced from copper deposits."

"The DRC copper belt includes some of the highest-grade copper deposits in the world. In some reserves the grades are above 5%."

"The ore also has high grades of cobalt and may hold 34% of the world's cobalt reserves."

"The Katanga, or Shaba, copperbelt in the DRC is a belt about 70 kilometres (43 mi) wide and 250 kilometres (160 mi) long between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi formed in rocks of the Katanga Supergroup . There are at least 72 economic deposits of copper/cobalt (estimated more than 200) and four large mining centers."

"the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world's largest supplier of cobalt, to formalize artisanal mining under the banner of responsible sourcing"

"the colossal mining concern oper operating - ating operating in the mineral-rich province of Katanga. Such other minerals as copper, cobalt, tine, cadium, germanium, lead silver, and gold"

"There, a veritable mining boom for cobalt is underway, driven by rising global demand for batteries and other modern digital devices needed for future sustainability transitions."

"netted Union Miniere a profit of $126,000,000 last year before deduction of taxes which comprise between one-third and one-half of the Congo’s total tax revenue."

"First, we suggest that the reliance on wageless artisanal workers in large-scale industrial operations holds important lessons for understanding the unintended effects of mining formalization."

"The mining regions are also known to have dangerous working conditions where the workers including children, earn low wages and toil in unhealthy working conditions."

"It documents the exploitation of ASM miners by the government, the police, and even at times other mining actors such as traders or local communities."

"they hi ve for the moment made the Congo, with its strategic minerals, a firm bastion against communism."

"Second, the flexible recruitment of artisanal workers by mining companies represents an emergent trend of corporate outsourcing of responsibility."

"Cobalt was initially found in 1914 in a Belgian firm Union Miniere after it found substantial deposits of copper ore in the southern area of the then Belgian governed state of the Congo Free State"

"It lastly reveals sobering patterns of child labor and abuse, again at times by the government or police, but other times by families or mining communities themselves."

"Cobalt is usually by product of other metal mining processes often used globally"

"Most mining and processing of cobalt occurs outside the U.S."

"These factors can at times make cobalt mining a modern form of slavery and a catalyst for social, economic, and even regional dispossession."

"publicly traded U.S. companies, including DoD contractors and their subcontractors, already are required to conduct supply chain due diligence on these minerals when they are necessary to the functionality or production of a product manufactured by that company. This requirement stems from section 1502 of Public Law 111-203 (implemented at 17 CFR 240.13p-1) to ensure that such minerals are not sup"

"the artisanally-mined cobalt to international chains supplying large-scale technology and automotive manufacturers."

"showing how many vulnerabilities—in terms of work, status, social norms, and sexual abuse and prostitution—fall disproportionately on women and girls."

"technology will reduce cobalt dependency for batteries."